Finite Resources

Not everything can be replaced. So we reuse and recycle.

Aluminium purification at one of our suppliers in Taiwan.

Not everything can be replaced. So we reuse and recycle.

We’re conscious of how we use resources that may not be around forever. So we’re designing products that use fewer materials than ever before. We’ve come up with innovative ways to minimise the environmental impact of our raw materials by using more recycled, recyclable and sustainable plant-based materials. And we’re striving to reuse as much water as we can when manufacturing our products, and in the data centres that help those products and services work.

Making the most of our materials.

Over the past decade, Apple designers and engineers have continued to pioneer new ways to build our products with less material. Manufacturing innovations such as unibody construction have allowed products like iPad, MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air to become thinner while being even more resilient. Today’s Mac Pro uses 74 per cent less aluminium and steel than the previous design. The newest 21.5-inch iMac is made with 68 per cent less material than the first iMac, and the new MacBook uses 32 per cent less aluminium than the first-generation MacBook Air.

30%

Amount of recycled content in the iMac aluminium stand.

Up to

40%

Up to 40 per cent less volume and 31 per cent lighter than the previous design.

32%

Amount of material MacBook saves, by weight, compared with the original MacBook Air.

67%

Amount of bio-based content in the butterfly mechanism of the MacBook keyboard.

39%

Amount of material iPad Air 2 saves, by weight, compared with the first iPad.

30%

Amount of post-consumer recycled plastic in iPad Air 2.

74%

Amount of aluminium and steel Mac Pro saves compared with its predecessor.

30%

Amount of post-consumer recycled plastic in Mac Pro speakers.

We’re constantly striving to design products that are thin and light — not just so they’re beautiful and portable, but also so they require fewer materials to manufacture.

Designed for durability.

Smaller and lighter products are easier on the environment, but sometimes the environment isn’t easy on them. So we design everything from our largest displays to our smallest cables to be durable and long-lasting. And we test them in our own Reliability Testing Lab.

Every Mac notebook battery is designed to last for over 1,000 charges.

You don’t have to buy a new Apple product to have one that feels new. We make it easy to update to new versions of apps, software and entire operating systems — OS X Yosemite works on Mac computers made as far back as 2007 — so you’ll have a new experience without buying a new device. Our built-in notebook batteries are designed to last up to five years, which saves on buying new batteries, produces less waste and increases the lifespan of your notebook.

And when Apple product owners pass along their devices to friends or family, they’re conserving resources too. The mark of a great product isn’t just how many you sell, but how much it’s used.

To evaluate mechanical robustness, the Multi-Touch display is twisted and bowed.

To test sensitivity to focused pressure, weight is applied to different areas of the touchscreen.

To mimic real-life usage, Lightning to USB Cables are continually twisted back and forth.

To ensure that it can stand up to repeated use, the Sleep/Wake button is pressed over and over.

When it comes to processing electronic waste, it’s all about attention to detail. We work hard to find recycling partners that share our vision.

Our commitment to recycling.

If not recycled properly, electronic waste can be a serious health and environmental issue. To make a quick profit, unethical recyclers sometimes dump e-waste or use dangerous techniques that can leak toxins and harm the environment. That’s why we’re committed to helping people recycle responsibly. Every Apple Retail Store in the world accepts Apple products for responsible recycling. Our Reuse and Recycling Program also allows customers in several countries to bring in their older devices in exchange for credit toward a new model. We’ve set up recycling programs — such as providing free shipping on e-waste returns and organising collection events and ongoing take-back programs with governments and universities — in 99 per cent of the countries where we sell our products. Since 1994, we have diverted more than 230 million kilograms of equipment from landfills.

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We’ve set up recycling programs in 99 per cent of the countries where we sell our products.

In 2010, we set out to achieve a worldwide recycling collection rate of 70 per cent of the total weight of the products we sold seven years earlier. Since then, we have consistently reached 85 per cent. In 2014, we collected 40,396 tonnes of e‑waste through our take-back programs. That’s more than 75 per cent of the total weight of the products we sold seven years earlier, and significantly more than others in the industry typically report.

We wanted to better understand the impact of these programs throughout the entire recycling chain, so we worked with e-waste experts to calculate how our recycling programs break down into raw materials: how much aluminium, steel and other materials from the waste we collect was recovered for reuse instead of mining more virgin material. The remaining amount of waste was processed and managed to minimise environmental impact.

Materials like aluminium, steel, copper, gold, silver and palladium need to be mined from the earth and processed, which requires extensive land use and generates greenhouse gases and other emissions. By recycling these materials, we can prevent a significant amount of these impacts. For example, we recovered enough steel in 2014 that the equivalent could be used to build over 161 kilometres of railroad track. And we are continually investing in new ways to better reuse these materials and recover other rare elements.

Amount of material recovered for reuse in 2014 in tonnes

Keep recycling local.

All electronic waste we collect worldwide is processed in the region where it’s collected — nothing is shipped overseas for disposal. The vast majority of our recycling is handled in-region, so we can make sure our recycled materials are not being dumped unsafely in developing countries — a common problem in our industry. This also helps us keep our transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions low. We currently work with 140 partners around the globe whose facilities are rigorously evaluated each year on health and safety, environmental compliance, material tracking, social responsibility and other Apple mandates.

There are better things to do with waste than put it in a landfill.

Our multi-use facility in Cork, Ireland, has set the standard for our supply chain by receiving the first UL Zero Waste to Landfill validation outside North America. The location handles both corporate and manufacturing operations, and none of its 13,400 tonnes of annual waste is sent to landfills. The portion of waste the Cork facility sends to be incinerated and used for energy is just 3 per cent, which is far below the maximum 10 per cent allowed for Zero Waste to Landfill validation.

The Cork facility achieved Zero Waste to Landfill validation through a number of efforts. In the factory, the same packaging in which we receive iMac components is reused to ship iMac to customers. And all cardboard, foam packaging, plastic trays, electrical cables and pallets are recycled. Even the cooking oil from the campus cafeteria is recovered to produce biodiesel fuel.

Everyone should have water to use and reuse.

Water is the world’s most precious resource. So we continue to look for ways to reduce water consumption during manufacturing, cooling, landscaping and sanitation.

The cooling system at our data centre in Maiden, North Carolina, reuses water 35 times.

Our data centre in Maiden, North Carolina, in the US, employs an innovative cooling system that reuses water 35 times, resulting in a 20 per cent reduction in overall water consumption at the data centre.

At our facilities that receive less dependable rainfall, we installed sophisticated irrigation systems that monitor local weather conditions and soil moisture, which led to a 40 per cent reduction in landscape watering. At some facilities, we’ve achieved further reductions thanks to drought-tolerant landscaping and drip irrigation.

In 2014, we made a number of water improvements at our Cupertino, California headquarters, including a significant renovation of the landscaping on our Infinite Loop campus. There, we completed our conversion from inefficient overhead spray irrigation to subsurface drip irrigation and surface bubblers, which conserves much more water. Across our Santa Clara Valley campuses, we planted more than 700 drought-tolerant trees.

Water is a precious resource. So we’re helping our suppliers comply with local water-use standards and those we set at Apple.

Overall, we converted more than 12,000 square metres of landscaping to be better suited to our climate and to use less water. These efforts translate to estimated water savings of 8.7 million litres per year.

To make sure our suppliers are also part of our water conservation efforts, we’ve established the Clean Water Program. This initiative helps reduce water use, promote water recycling and reuse, and prevent illegal water pollution within our supply chain.

The Clean Water Program has already proved successful at several of our supplier sites, including Dongguan Meadville Circuits (DMC), located in China’s Guangdong Province. In September 2013, DMC had a nearly 12 per cent wastewater reuse rate. After enrolling in the Clean Water Program and working with our experts, DMC’s wastewater reuse rate climbed to approximately 61 per cent by the end of 2014.